A place for a tired old woman to try to figure things out so that the world makes a bit of sense.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

It Ain't The Water

Tea Partiers worked very hard to get the new crop of Republican congress critters elected in November. They expected their new representatives to change the atmosphere in Washington, DC. No more business as usual. Sadly, that hasn't happened. The freshman class has proved quite adept at business as usual, especially the "business" part.

Mr. Pompeo said he ran for Congress because as a businessman (whose business included some Koch investment money) he saw “how government can crush entrepreneurism.” His contributions to the House Republicans’ budget-slashing legislation included two top priorities of Koch Industries: killing off funds for the Obama administration’s new database for consumer complaints about unsafe products and for a registry of greenhouse gas polluters at the Environmental Protection Agency.

The congressman said he was concerned that the database would encourage false accusations about good products and that the registry would increase the E.P.A.’s power and cost jobs. Those arguments are nonsense, but Mr. Pompeo represents an early warning of the shape of things to come when the Supreme Court’s misguided decision to legalize unfettered corporate campaign donations fully kicks in next year.

The congressman has plenty of ties with the Koch brothers (see the full editorial linked above), and he's obviously been repaying some debts. Sadly, he's not alone in that regard. His freshman colleagues have also been rewarding their big money supporters, and, as the editorial points out, we can expect that kind of behavior to continue at increasing speed thanks to the misguided Citizens United decision by our Supreme Court.

Ordinary voters may be making a show of demanding real political change, but they are being increasingly outbid at the big money table where American politics happens.